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“Stay still,” Starscream muttered, flitting around Megatron to adjust the lay of fine silver chains or the angle at which heavy pendants sat. “Primus, it’s like you’re a newbuild.”
“Do not test my patience.” Megatron’s engine rumbled a powerful, dangerous promise under his words, one that Starscream was unlikely to forget.
After all, he did so love being reminded of it.
This time, though, the power was in his talons. Not because he’d taken it, fighting tooth and nail to drag Megatron down to his level.
No, it turned out that after all this time that all Starscream had had to do was to ask very, very nicely.
Starscream stepped back to view his masterpiece.
Megatron stood in the center of his quarters, draped in finery Starscream had obtained himself. Whether it had been from a recently-offlined senator or the coffers of some monarchy that fancied itself above dealing with mechanicals, it was safe to say nothing had been obtained with the permission of its prior owners. Megatron didn’t have a mirror in his berthroom, so he was left to glance down at his frame to try and take in the effect.
“Beautiful,” Starscream purred, and Megatron made a face.
“Foolish,” he grumbled. “Impractical.”
“Lovely,” Starscream corrected him. “Here, let me show you what I see. Shutter your optics.”
Megatron glared at him.
Starscream shook his head, stepping up to pat Megatron’s chest just beneath a particularly intricate necklace. “Megatron, dear one, ask yourself this: would I offline you in your own quarters, where Soundwave knows we’re alone, and where multiple other officers saw us enter together? Really, how stupid do you think I am?”
“Stupid, no. Incorrigible, absolutely.” Megatron shuttered his optics anyway, because he knew Starscream was right.
Starscream was always right.
“Alright,” he cooed, reaching up to adjust the angle of Megatron’s circlet, it wasn’t a crown, Megatron had put his pede down about that. (It was a crown. Starscream had literally taken it off the head of the king who’d worn it prior. But if it made Megatron feel better to call it a circlet, Starscream was willing to indulge him.)
“Listen very closely and do not interrupt me, because I am only going to say this once. You are the strongest mech I have ever known; everything you have, you have earned. Every gem, all the precious metal adorning you, they all serve to highlight your strength. You don’t need it, but you deserve it. You deserve to know the splendors of your empire, Lord Megatron. And the mech I see when I look at you knows that too. He just needs to let it happen.” He pulled Megatron down into a fierce, biting kiss. “Isn’t he lucky that he has me around to point it out?” he murmured into their embrace.
When they pulled away, Megatron’s optics came online with their familiar deep red glow. “You have always had a way with words.”
“And you love me for it.”
Megatron just kissed him again.